IRIA News

The eighth round of indirect talks between Iran and the U.S. resumed in Vienna on December 27.

The latest round of nuclear talks between Iran and the P4+1 (China, Russia, UK, France, and Germany) restarted in Vienna, Austria. The fresh round of dialogue is focused on Iran’s main demand of lifting the sanctions imposed by the Trump administration.

Although little progress has been made on reversing Iran’s nuclear program, Iranian negotiators have pushed for lifting U.S. sanctions as agreed under the initial agreement.

A Russian envoy, Mikhail Ulyanov said on December 29 that senior officials from the United States and Russia met in Vienna to save the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement.

The Russian envoy wrote on his Twitter post that he had two meetings with the U.S. special envoy on Iran Robert Malley.

Ulyanov said, “Close consultations and coordination between the Russian and the US delegations in the course of the Vienna talks constitute an important prerequisite for progress towards restoration of [2015 Iran nuclear deal].”

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said in a statement that “The Vienna talks are headed in a good direction… We believe that if other parties continue the round of talks which just started with good faith, reaching a good agreement for all parties is possible.”

When asked about the meeting, the U.S. Department of State said it would not discuss the details of the diplomatic dialogue.

“It’s really too soon to tell whether Iran has returned with a more constructive approach to this round. We are now assessing, in the course of these talks, whether the Iranians came back with an agenda of new issues or preliminary solutions to the ones already presented,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said.

According to the U.S. State Department, Secretary of State Antony Blinken held phone talks with his counterparts from Britain, Germany, and France, and discussed issues related to Iran nuclear talks with the U.S. partners.

“The Secretary and his counterparts also discussed their shared concerns about the pace of developments in Iran’s nuclear program as time runs short for Tehran to return to the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action],” Ned Price said about the phone call.

The recent rounds of talks are aimed at preventing the collapse of the JCPOA, an agreement on the Iranian nuclear program reached in Vienna in July 2015, between Iran and the P5+1. The JCPOA was aimed at limiting Iran’s production of enriched uranium, which is widely used as fuel for nuclear power plants and could also be used for the development of nuclear weapons. Although Iran insists that it does not seek nuclear weapons, many Western countries argue that Tehran has enriched uranium to 60% and deployed advanced centrifuges. In response, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh accused the European signatories of JCPOA of delaying the lifting of sanctions.

According to the European negotiators, both sides made some technical progress in the last round of dialogues to facilitate Iran’s requests, however, warned that the negotiating parties only had a few weeks’ time to save the nuclear agreement.

On November 29, the officials from Iran, Russia, China, the UK, France, and Germany met in Vienna since Tehran refused to hold direct talks with Washington after the U.S. withdrawal from the agreement. The last round of nuclear talks ended two weeks ago, after the addition of some new requirements from Iran to the working text.

Separately, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett urged the world powers to take a firm stand against Iran but said that Israel would not automatically oppose a nuclear deal. Israel has repeatedly stated that it will never allow Iran to possess nuclear weapons, as it would Iran would pose an existential threat to Israel, and that Israel, U.S., and allies are prepared to consider all options. Israeli leaders have said that a nuclear.